It is a well-known and unfortunate fact that the United States has the highest prison population in the world. According to the Prison Policy Initiative (a non-profit and non-partisan organization), the United States Criminal Justice System holds more than 2.3 million people, and this is not including those people who are currently on parole or probation. One of the largest contributing factors to our overcrowded and overpopulated prisons is the United States ineffective means of dealing with drug offenders. According to the Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA), the United States has 5% of the world’s population yet consumes two-thirds of the world’s illicit drugs. On top of this, the United States incarcerates nearly one-quarter of the world’s prisoners of which 60% test positive for illicit drugs upon their arrest. It has been estimated that 8 out of 10 prisoners have some form of substance abuse involvement or history. Besides the pressure on the prison system, locking someone up because they can’t afford bail can be disastrous to the arrestee’s life. While sitting in prison, even without being convicted, they will also probably lose their job. With the loss of a family member, some inmates’ families may have to rely more on social benefits, putting even more strain on the system. Finally, people will often plead guilty even if they are innocent because if they plead not guilty and wait to go to trial, they’ll have to sit in prison for months. One possible solution is simply to eliminate the bail system for people who can’t afford it. This will decrease the amount of people in prison, and it keeps innocent and nonviolent offenders out of prison altogether. (There’s even a precedent for not charging bail in the US, as Washington, DC, has pretty much eliminated bail for those who can’t afford it.) In lieu of bail, pretrial service specialists would decide if someone is a flight risk, could be a danger to the public, or both. If they’re not, they’d be sent home, possibly being given an ankle monitor or having to do drug tests. When the court date is coming up, pretrial services would call the person to remind them to show up at their court date. These systems are cheaper, easier, and much more humane than imprisoning people who haven’t been convicted of crimes solely because they’re poor. Bottom line the system is bad. This is yet another social problem. The system was created as a facility to rehabilitate the prisoner so he or she might be a useful part of society tomorrow, but instead the system is repressive. The prisoner often loses his mental health, and recidivism is guaranteed. The only successive prison system in the world today are the prison system in Sweden. On the other hand, the most expensive and destructive prison system in the prison system in the United states.
S. Kumar
